1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin receiving and disbursing apparatus which stores a plural of denominations of coins in a separate reserving part for each coin denomination, and dispenses a specified number of a specified denomination of coins in response to an instruction from a related instrument, more specifically the present invention also relates to a compact coin receiving and disbursing apparatus, in particular, a low-height coin receiving and disbursing apparatus suited for installation under or beside a POS register and capable of completing the disbursement of coins in a short time period.
2. Description of Related Art
The term “coin” used herein means coins of currency, tokens and medals, which may be circular or polygonal in shape. In one conventionally known coin receiving and disbursing apparatus, after separating coins by a rotary disc, the coins travel in line along a received money conveying path and are checked by a judging unit to determine whether the coin is fake or real and to determine the coin denomination. The coins are then sorted by denomination in a sorting path after sequentially passed through a reject gate and overflow gate. The sorted coins are aligned on each side of a money disbursing path after passing through a chute, and introduced into a respective hopper provided for each denomination. The coins in each hopper engage a selector disk with a projection disposed on an inner periphery of an oblique circular disc, and a specified number of coins are disbursed from a hopper of a specified coin denomination into a money disbursing path in response to an instruction for money disbursement (see, Japanese Patent No. 2945235).
In the above conventional art, a coin is released from a hopper to a money disbursing path. In other words, the oblique circular disc is arranged so that it is in the lowest level on the side of the money disbursing path, and its level rises as the distance from the money disbursing path increases. Therefore, the money disbursing path is not able to convey a coin from a hopper unless it is disposed at a lower level than the lowermost end of the oblique circular disc. Since the received money conveying path, the hopper and the disbursing money conveying path are arranged in a stacked array, reduction of the height of the money receiving and disbursing apparatus is limited. In addition, since a coin may be disbursed with some speed towards the disbursing money conveying path from the hopper, the coin may strike the disbursing money conveying path and bounce in various directions, creating a problem that the money disbursement is not completed in a desired short time period.